As Congress debates the provisions that could make up the controversial SOPA bill, it looks as if the US courts are already shutting down websites for what could be considered unauthorized use or infringement without a just trial ever being carried out.

In the case against websites advertising allegedly counterfeit Chanel products, a District Court judge in Nevada allowed the legitimate manufacturer to seize around 600 domain names that were related to but not affiliated with the company. Additionally, restraining orders and injunctions were handed to the biggest search engine and Web companies in the world barring sites such as Google and Yahoo! from indexing or linking to the sites in question. In that instance, the federal judge allowed Chanel to seize the domains and transfer them to US-based registrar GoDaddy without any say from the defendants. And, according to the court ruling, those that even “promote” the sale of Chanel goods, legitimate or otherwise, can be added to the injunction and seized in the future.

Yep. If you're big enough, you can get the courts to let you rob anyone you want. No trial. No indictment. No due process. Summary execution if you will.

Nice. Good to know that there's a government that protects people corporate interests.

All without hearing from the other side. Seem excessive? It sure does. Venkat notes how extraordinary these remedies are. Think about it for a second: based solely on the declaration of a Philip Morris employee, the court is ordering the full transfer not just of websites, but of any funds being sent to a website. That's insane and a clear violation of any reasonable due process.

Yes, I have been reading up about this, with some interest.I think the problem may be that the unregulated use of the Internet just might be too scary a thought for the statists and Big Corporates. It will probably feel much less threatening when it's censored to hell and back and we are all paying a tax on its use.Then usage will be more "responsible".How amazing that the US is forcing (apparently already has forced) this one through.

That would at least allow for greater freedom of speech, even if you couldn't watch all the junk on YouTube on it.

Not to say the Powers That Be wouldn't try to over regulate that as well.

But at least they could no longer claim the prevention of digital piracy and copyright violations as their primary justification for doing so.

Once it becomes obvious the real intent is regulation for the sake of regulation I think you'll see a big shift in the general public's attitude about what's been going on lately. Which is a good thing. Because the only way to stop it is for the public to become aware of the problem enough to become actively engaged with the issue.

That would at least allow for greater freedom of speech, even if you couldn't watch all the junk on YouTube on it.

Not to say the Powers That Be wouldn't try to over regulate that as well.

But at least they could no longer claim the prevention of digital piracy and copyright violations as their primary justification for doing so.

Never underestimate a pirate's ability to abuse things to distribute whatever they please. Wasn't the newsgroups all text based? Didn't the pirates post a ton of small plain text messages that when put together with the right software result in things that were not plain text (audio, video, executables, images, etc)?

What would stop them from repeating that? And once they did, what would stop big brother and the **AA's from repeating what they did to stop them?

I hate to have to say it, but the only end to the madness is for the consumer to take control and put the companies that support and cause the madness out of business so they can't do any more damage. They can't lobby lawmakers once they file for bankruptcy and their assets are liquidated.

This means a change in buying habits, shopping with the ethical companies, buying only independent music from non-RIAA labels, using freeware/donationware/open source/shareware from ethical developers and being willing to support it so the small guys can grow and take the place of the big guys that are destroying everything.

We all have to be willing to do the work to change the world if we ever hope to change it. It's not just enough to want better, we have to do better, or we will never have better.

And it will never work with just a few of us. A handful of people doesn't have the kind of buying power that is needed to accomplish it.